For a few days I was able to spend time in the hillstations of Shimla and Dalhousie.
Before India I thought I had been to hill stations before... not a chance.
These are uniquely British build cities and towns on top of mountain ridges. See, in Colorado or California or frankly most anyplace I've visited, the cities are build in the valleys with maybe small towns up on the top of peaks or ridgelines. Here, they did the opposite. They build a 200,000 person city on a knife edge ridge in the lower Himalaya. Shimla in particular was fascinating how the buildings hugged these impossibly steep cliffs and slops. The roads were thigh-busters. They twist and turn all over the side of the mountain. Getting from one level to the next required stairs, slopes and in Shimla... an elevator.
I hopped out of the cab on a busy two lane road with the music of India blaring (That's car horns if you remember). Traffic. Noise. I walk over to an outdoor elevator and for Rs10 (10 Rupee or 15 cents) I get a pass to the elevator. Me and 8 other people got in. The doors closed. And... MUZAK! It was hilarious. Total silence but Muzak sax. No one talking.
Door open... STREET NOISE. Walk over to the second part of the lift. Same thing. Silence and Muzak. And at the top get off on "Mall Road". A multi-kilometer road of shops and restraunts. Passing restored historical theaters, government buildings and more. At one point Shimla was the seat of British government in India and 1/5 of the worlds population was governed from it's 2,200 meter (6,800foot) elevation.
And the day I arrived it was COLD. 35 degrees at night. And my room at the giant YMCA had no heat. As no room in Shimla does. Weird. But there were lots of blankets. And I had the sound of FAST AND FURIOUS 7 in Hindi roaring into my room from the movie theater that was in the next building over, about 50 feet from my room. Kind of hilarious to hear the cars revving and explosions with the occasional line of Hindi coming through. I wanted to see it, but never had the chance.
Up here I went for a couple of hikes. Enjoyed beautiful views of 7,000 meter snow capped Himalaya mountains. And enjoyed the cool weather. It warmed up to shorts weather. But was still nice. (NOw that I'm in Khajuraho and it's 102, I miss the mountains!)
The other Hill Station was Dalhousie. I went there with my awesome friend Ravi and his daughter Munira. So the 3 of us went on a road trip through Northern India for 4 awesome days. And one of our stops was Dalhousie. A MUCH quieter, smaller hillstation. With gorgeous views, a cliffside temple we hiked too, and the strange deal of not wanted to rent hotel rooms to foreigners.
To be fair, there's a new law where they have to go online to register any foreigner that stays with them, and they said they didn't have the ability. We were turned down rooms at 3 places before having Ravi enter, get a room and then switch it up on them that it was for me! In the end they just took my info to a cybercafe and sent it in. But sometimes in India you have to be crafty to make things happen. :)
Up here we also went to "Switzerland in the Himalaya". We drove on cliffside roads, through gorgeous woods, past snow banks. (Snowball fights ensued between me and Munira!), and reached this beautiful meadow surrounded by pine clad slopes. A place at home in Switzerland. But very Indian as there were cows and goats roaming it to eat the grass, kids with bunny rabbits trying to make a buck (or a Rupee) for their photo, and horseback rides. We took a ride around the meadow. Maybe 20 minutes. FOr $5USD each. Not bad. We played frisbee, ate lunch at one of the many little cafes.
It was all very pretty, though there were a fair amount of people there. And as is the case in India, once you went behind the shops to the road there was trash piled and strewn about. It's a sad fact that in India there is a lot of garbage. A LOT. It's piled in beautiful places, thown down slopes, put around dumpsters, burned on the street. And then there are the cows. Shitting on the street. In the market alleys. Even the alleys where they sell food. Yes. I'm not kidding.
And then there is the rather open using of the "toilet" by Indian's themselves. Not everyone to be sure, but there are open urinals in various places. (Nothing for the ladies. Just the men). I saw men squatting and peeing into the gutter in the old parts of town in Agra. And when you ride the train, you'll pass fields and places where people are just squatting to take care of business in plain view of the tracks. Not one person in a field, but 4 or 5 near each other.
Now, I'm not saying this to say "Oh god, how disgusting", though some of it is pretty raw. This is India. It's a VERY different culture from anyplace I've been. (And not just because of this). There are rules here that are hard to figure out. Customs that don't make sense to me (or any of the European travelers I've met). Oddities that are so uniquely Indian (As far as I know) that it's both fascinating and frustrating. And of course India should be nothing but what India is. And if you can't take it... India doesn't care. So best to adapt, go with the flow and see where the road takes you...
... and the next stop... Pakistan.
Before India I thought I had been to hill stations before... not a chance.
These are uniquely British build cities and towns on top of mountain ridges. See, in Colorado or California or frankly most anyplace I've visited, the cities are build in the valleys with maybe small towns up on the top of peaks or ridgelines. Here, they did the opposite. They build a 200,000 person city on a knife edge ridge in the lower Himalaya. Shimla in particular was fascinating how the buildings hugged these impossibly steep cliffs and slops. The roads were thigh-busters. They twist and turn all over the side of the mountain. Getting from one level to the next required stairs, slopes and in Shimla... an elevator.
I hopped out of the cab on a busy two lane road with the music of India blaring (That's car horns if you remember). Traffic. Noise. I walk over to an outdoor elevator and for Rs10 (10 Rupee or 15 cents) I get a pass to the elevator. Me and 8 other people got in. The doors closed. And... MUZAK! It was hilarious. Total silence but Muzak sax. No one talking.
Door open... STREET NOISE. Walk over to the second part of the lift. Same thing. Silence and Muzak. And at the top get off on "Mall Road". A multi-kilometer road of shops and restraunts. Passing restored historical theaters, government buildings and more. At one point Shimla was the seat of British government in India and 1/5 of the worlds population was governed from it's 2,200 meter (6,800foot) elevation.
And the day I arrived it was COLD. 35 degrees at night. And my room at the giant YMCA had no heat. As no room in Shimla does. Weird. But there were lots of blankets. And I had the sound of FAST AND FURIOUS 7 in Hindi roaring into my room from the movie theater that was in the next building over, about 50 feet from my room. Kind of hilarious to hear the cars revving and explosions with the occasional line of Hindi coming through. I wanted to see it, but never had the chance.
Up here I went for a couple of hikes. Enjoyed beautiful views of 7,000 meter snow capped Himalaya mountains. And enjoyed the cool weather. It warmed up to shorts weather. But was still nice. (NOw that I'm in Khajuraho and it's 102, I miss the mountains!)
The other Hill Station was Dalhousie. I went there with my awesome friend Ravi and his daughter Munira. So the 3 of us went on a road trip through Northern India for 4 awesome days. And one of our stops was Dalhousie. A MUCH quieter, smaller hillstation. With gorgeous views, a cliffside temple we hiked too, and the strange deal of not wanted to rent hotel rooms to foreigners.
To be fair, there's a new law where they have to go online to register any foreigner that stays with them, and they said they didn't have the ability. We were turned down rooms at 3 places before having Ravi enter, get a room and then switch it up on them that it was for me! In the end they just took my info to a cybercafe and sent it in. But sometimes in India you have to be crafty to make things happen. :)
Up here we also went to "Switzerland in the Himalaya". We drove on cliffside roads, through gorgeous woods, past snow banks. (Snowball fights ensued between me and Munira!), and reached this beautiful meadow surrounded by pine clad slopes. A place at home in Switzerland. But very Indian as there were cows and goats roaming it to eat the grass, kids with bunny rabbits trying to make a buck (or a Rupee) for their photo, and horseback rides. We took a ride around the meadow. Maybe 20 minutes. FOr $5USD each. Not bad. We played frisbee, ate lunch at one of the many little cafes.
It was all very pretty, though there were a fair amount of people there. And as is the case in India, once you went behind the shops to the road there was trash piled and strewn about. It's a sad fact that in India there is a lot of garbage. A LOT. It's piled in beautiful places, thown down slopes, put around dumpsters, burned on the street. And then there are the cows. Shitting on the street. In the market alleys. Even the alleys where they sell food. Yes. I'm not kidding.
And then there is the rather open using of the "toilet" by Indian's themselves. Not everyone to be sure, but there are open urinals in various places. (Nothing for the ladies. Just the men). I saw men squatting and peeing into the gutter in the old parts of town in Agra. And when you ride the train, you'll pass fields and places where people are just squatting to take care of business in plain view of the tracks. Not one person in a field, but 4 or 5 near each other.
Now, I'm not saying this to say "Oh god, how disgusting", though some of it is pretty raw. This is India. It's a VERY different culture from anyplace I've been. (And not just because of this). There are rules here that are hard to figure out. Customs that don't make sense to me (or any of the European travelers I've met). Oddities that are so uniquely Indian (As far as I know) that it's both fascinating and frustrating. And of course India should be nothing but what India is. And if you can't take it... India doesn't care. So best to adapt, go with the flow and see where the road takes you...
... and the next stop... Pakistan.
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